---
title: He was a little sorry at first that he had not put on his best cloth… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: He was a little sorry at first that he had not put on his best clothes, but he soon forgot to think about that. Who acts: King. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 1, sentence 95

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He was a little sorry at first that he had not put on his best clothes, but he soon forgot to think about that.

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**Who acts:** King · **What happens:** be, not put, forget, not think · **To what, where:** little sorry, best clothes

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg23661:1:95
# text = He was a little sorry at first that he had not put on his best clothes, but he soon forgot to think about that.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	sorry	sorry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	nmod	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	acl	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	amod	_	_
16	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	21	advmod	_	_
21	forgot	forget	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	about	about	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | King | a little sorry |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **put** | past · perfect | King | a little sorry *not said here* |  | King's best clothes |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent sorry=Theme on clothes=Destination |
| 3 | **forget** | past | King |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | King *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about that | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about that=Topic |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Project Gutenberg book 23661 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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